Mass Effect: Citadel Incidentals
by Sigyn2011
Summary: If you read "Subjugation", then you'll know that I placed Miranda onboard the Normandy after the Horizon mission. These conversations will all sort of tie into one another, and they take place right before the Cronos mission. The character category might all be a bit misleading, but most of them either include Miranda or are about Miranda/Shepard.
1. An Unexpected Rendezvous

Mass Effect: Citadel Incidentals

Chapter One-An Unexpected Rendezvous

The Citadel, Widow cluster, Serpent Nebula System,

Level 4, Huerta Memorial Hospital, 1118h, 2186

Shepard strolled casually with Miranda upon his arm and headed straight for the Sirta Foundation kiosk. He found it difficult to believe that they had stayed in business for so long, seeing as the company had run into financial trouble last year. _The Reaper war must have put them back onto the market_. _Maybe these things got invented by some twisted arms dealer slash doctor slash mad scientist_, he thought.

He quickened their step through the hallway and finally extracted himself from her as he approached the kiosk. Several patients cried out in pain, and he winced as he listened to their pleas. Miranda eyed him curiously. "You don't like hospitals much, do you?" she wondered aloud.

"Not many people do," he deflected her observation and swiped his credit chit across the scanner.

"I don't remember seeing this kind of reaction from you whenever you've stepped into the infirmary on the Normandy."

"That's different. I know Dr. Chakwas." He flicked his index finger along the screen to peruse the simple catalog.

"And you also know Dr. Michel here, if I'm not mistaken."

"The infirmary on the Normandy is a lot more quiet. So was this place, before the Cerberus attack and the coup." Shepard tore his eyes away from the screen and briefly glanced about himself. "I don't suppose you like hearing all this either." He went back to the electronic catalog.

"It reminds me of Eden Prime all those years ago," a voice from the patient wing called to them. The black man in a jump suit that hugged his body confidently made his way towards both of his former colleagues. "Way too much yelling, screaming, and gunfire. Then…silence."

"Fancy bumping into you here, Jacob," Miranda mused. "Nice to see you."

"And you as well, Miranda." Taylor's head bobbed up and down. He offered a hand towards her first, which she took, and then pumped Shepard's firmly. "Shepard, hey, thanks for coming. Wanna talk elsewhere?"

Shepard completed his purchase and nodded. "The commons is a good place, or maybe near the embassies."

As they piled into the elevator, Miranda turned towards him. "Why didn't you tell me that we'd be meeting Jacob here?" she inquired.

"I had some shopping to do, too. Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. Was I being dishonest?"

"No, just your usual evasive self," she muttered and rolled her eyes.

Taylor pushed the '5' button for the Presidium Commons. "I wanted to thank you again, Shepard. How about a drink at Apollo's?"

"I'll take you up on that, but right now, I'm not gonna have anything stronger than a cappuccino. It's a bit early for me," Shepard announced as he confirmed his omni-tool's time. "So, Jacob, have you and Brynn come up with a name yet for that little bundle of joy you're expecting?"

"Eh…we're still…at a stalemate. I talked her out of calling the baby Shepard, at least. She's finally budged from that crazy idea," Jacob chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "I think we'll wait until we know the baby's gender."

"How far along is she?" Miranda piped in.

"Eight weeks now. She only just found out about four weeks ago, and it was the day that I first saw Shepard in the hospital. Sorry that I cut our conversation short that day, Shep. Brynn was calling me, and I didn't want to make her wait."

"No hard feelings," Shepard shrugged. "I've learned the hard way about making a woman wait."

Jacob's forehead wrinkled as he glanced upon Miranda, who gave him a 'don't look at me' expression. The elevator came to a stop as it reached its designation, and the three of them all fell into step with one another outside of it. "Shepard told me that you were with Dr. Cole on Gellix protecting quite a few ex-Cerberus scientists as well as their families," Miranda declared. "How many were there?"

"Originally, Brynn and I left with fifty-eight people, but, well…the Illusive Man got…tenacious. By the time Shepard got there, we were down to forty-three. When we all left, forty-one made it out."

"I'm told that Dr. Archer also made it out as well as did Dr. Baynard."

Jacob snapped his fingers as he came to a realization."Oh, that's right, you knew Baynard from before, right? I think you had wanted to put him on the Lazarus project if I'm remembering it correctly. Damn, it's a good thing that he turned you down."

"At the time, I was furious. I was almost at the point of begging for him from the Illusive Man, but in retrospect…I suppose you're right."

Shepard nearly scoffed. "You? Beg?"

"He had all the qualifications. The Illusive Man also wanted results; I simply had planned upon making it clear to him that in order to achieve those results that I needed…" she made a 'tsk' with her tongue. "Look, that's irrelevant now."

They arrived at the cafe, and Shepard spotted a very old friend from the marines sitting alone at a table that he had not seen in years. "Hey, I hope neither of you mind this, but I haven't seen Albert in _years_. Mind if I catch up with him?"

"No problem, Shep. I'll still have the cappuccino delivered to your table. Want it made any particular way?" Jacob asked with a smile.

"I'll take it however they serve it. Oh, unless they make it with that soy milk." He inserted a finger absently in between his lips. "In that case, tell them I only want the stuff that comes from a bovine."

"No problem." As Shepard gracefully exited, Jacob picked up a data pad from a table and scooted one of the chairs backward for Miranda. She studied him for a few moments cautiously as if to try and gauge his motivations, then followed through with his chivalrous actions, and sat.

"So, you and Shepard…?" he began and let his sentence trail away.

"You and Dr. Cole?" Miranda cleared her throat.

"Yeah, we're serious. I wanna raise a family and do it right, not like my own screwed up one," Jacob stated and shook his head. He paused to look at the view. "Sitting here with you like this brings back some memories."

"Good ones, I hope," she snorted through her nose.

"So, you didn't answer my question, Miranda."

"You didn't ask me one."

"Do I have to be so damned candid with you? Do you take some kind of sick pleasure in the fact that you make a lot of people feel uncomfortable around you?" He rolled his eyes and selected a few different drinks from the menu. "What'll you have, Miranda?"

"Armali Springs, if they've got the mineral water. Or Serrice Cascades."

"How does Citadel Rejuvenation sound? That's the extent of their choices that fit into that category."

She sighed. "Not very appetizing, to say the least. I've heard that some sanitation workers' bodies have been found in those treatment plants. A large cup of coffee will be adequate, then, thank you."

"Okay, then." He finished sending in his order and put down the data pad. "So where'd Shepard find you? I lost track of you after you split from the Normandy."

"Sorry that I couldn't keep in contact with you. If it makes you feel any better, Shepard didn't hear from me either. You were still with Cerberus then, and I went underground."

"Yeah, about a day before I turned in my weapons to the armory, I heard a couple of Cerberus personnel talking about you. One of them mentioned that he couldn't figure out why the Boss was so pissed off, and the other said that it was because you flew the coop. What exactly did you say to him?"

"He gave me an order not to let Shepard destroy the base, and I defied it, simple as that," she shrugged and folded her arms across her chest. "When he insisted upon the fact that I was to obey his ludicrous command, I told him right then and there to consider my disobedience as my resignation."

"Ha-wish I could've been there to see it," Jacob smirked. "Never thought I'd see the day when you'd stand up to him like that."

"I don't kowtow to _anyone_." Her eyes narrowed. "After I spent two years of my bloody life recreating and re-mapping this man's very own cellular structure, tissue, memories, and muscles, I deserved better than that!"

"You sure? I mean, that can't be the only reason why you refused to follow that order, was it? Your pride?"

She sighed and gladly accepted the cup of coffee as their server set it down upon their table. Jacob opened a can that boasted to give its consumer five full hours of energy. "No, you're right. It was a betrayal…of sorts…on the Illusive Man's part, I mean. All of those colonists…I don't care if that technology could've helped us."

"Boy, you've certainly changed…" he mumbled. When her eyes snapped to make immediate contact with his, he lifted up both palms. "For the better, I mean. I think Shepard's definitely rubbed off on you."

"He had an effect upon everybody on the Normandy, Jacob, even you."

"Yeah, but I was only with Cerberus for a couple of years. You, Miranda, well, it didn't seem like you'd ever step away from the Illusive Man," he pointed a finger towards her and shook his head in disbelief. "Don't get me wrong, he had some great ideals and good goals, but he got on my nerves sometimes."

"You were never anything but openly hostile towards him. Did you expect that he'd turn the other cheek all of the time?" she wondered. "Even Shepard was more respectful towards him than you."

Jacob guzzled the entire drink down in one large gulp and set the can down. "You know, he asked me about you once…Shepard, I mean."

"In what way?"

"He wanted to know what made you tick. This was before the two of you got involved…I think." He eyed her carefully, but as usual, neither her body language nor her face gave the answer away.

"So what did you tell him?"

"What _could _I tell him?" he chortled. "I said that if I knew, I'd either be with you or lying in a grave somewhere. He's got you now, and that's all that matters."

"Hmm…right now that's the only thing that's a certainty in this bloody mess." She took a sip from her cup. "I met with him a few times here on the Citadel before we ran into one another on Horizon."

"Horizon, that colony out in the Iera system? What was out there?"

Her face instantly darkened. "My father."

"Right." He knew that he had to tread very lightly around her when it came to this subject, so he decided to play it safe and not directly question her about the incident. "I think I remember Cerberus funneling quite a good chunk of money into that place after we were there last year. I'm guessing that there was an ulterior motive for doing that and knowing that Brynn's colleagues began to just vanish into thin air, it was probably linked to studying the effects of indoctrination. She said that she was working on an application for an implant-one that could be directly inserted into the base of the neck like an amp or something."

Miranda remained silent as he spouted off his theories. Her gaze shifted towards the table where Shepard and his friend were sitting. Unfortunately, she could not see him; she only saw Shepard's back. But he did seem to be enjoying himself; he slapped his palm onto the table as he guffawed over a joke that his friend told him. Jacob's voice broke her out of her taciturn observation.

"How's your sister doing these days?"

"Fairly well, thanks. She's staying with me on the Normandy and has apparently become very friendly with the communication specialist there."

Jacob clapped a hand over his mouth in shock. "Did you just say what I think you just said?" Even though his words were extremely muffled, Miranda got the gist of it.

"We're going to go take down the Illusive Man."

He removed the hand from his mouth. "Please tell me that I'm dreaming or that we're in an alternate universe, Miranda, because as I swear to God, I _never_ thought that I'd see or hear about the day when you'd willingly let yourself walk onto an Alliance ship."

"I'm a bit amazed myself, really." She took another drink from her cup and rested both of her elbows onto the table. "But irony seems to be the norm these days."

"Are you keeping Shepard in line?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed derisively. "As if I could. EDI gave me some hardware for Shepard's head gear and software for my omni-tool from Devlon Industries so that I could tactically advise him throughout any missions on a separate channel from his squad as well as the Normandy that he didn't take me on. Unfortunately, during the first one, I had to break contact and maintain radio silence."

"What happened?"

"Oh, there was some kind of interference-probably some feedback that was looping through either a Cerberus protocol or an Alliance code somewhere. Who knows?" She waved a hand in the air. "But he got mildly injured during that one; if only I'd been able to…oh, it doesn't matter now. Water under the bridge."

"So he's got you wrapped about his finger, huh?"

"I beg your pardon?" Miranda lifted a curious eyebrow at him as she consumed some more coffee.

"Well you just said that it was a big chore to keep him in line." Jacob gave her a crooked grin and picked up the data pad once again to order another drink. "And you came with him instead of going after the Illusive Man all by yourself."

"That would be completely asinine, nearly as foolish as when you ran into that cave on Tortuga without waiting for backup like I told you." She crossed one leg over the other and set the cup back onto its saucer.

"Whatever, Miranda." He fidgeted nervously in his chair. "You never walked that way with me in public; he's got you lock, stock, and barrel. And hey, I'm really happy for the both of you. He's a much better man for you than I ever was."

_That goes without saying_, she thought. "What's Admiral Hackett got you doing these days?"

"I'm escorting the scientists here and there. Sometimes I see some action, but I bet that as time gets closer to the final battle on Earth, I'm gonna see a helluva lot more. Believe you me, I'm ready for it." He held up one of his gloved fists triumphantly. "I think that this weapon's gonna really help us win against these Reaper bastards. What about you?"

"I heard that this is a major project. I'm surprised that Hackett didn't order Shepard to send me over there once he heard that I was no longer a part of Cerberus and free of their assassins." The waitress brought over another drink to Jacob, who wasted no time in getting that one open as well.

"Maybe he did; Shepard wouldn't let go of you that easily, though, at least…not without some persuasion on his part."

A tiny smile tugged upon her lips upon that thought, and she finished the coffee.

"Thanks for the drink, Taylor. It was good to catch up with you," Miranda gave him a perfunctory beam and arose.

"Looks like he's having a good time with that long lost friend." Jacob threw his next drink down his throat. "Sure you don't want another?"

Her eyes wandered about the Presidium; they found someone else she wanted to speak with. Someone whose skin was as blue as the Citadel's artificial sky, and someone who was leaning against a railing on the Presidium from the opposite end of the park probably daydreaming about Shepard. "No thank you, Jacob. I've gotta run."

**A/N**-The meat and potatoes will come much later on, I promise. And I keep my promises.

The next conversation (in the next chapter) will occur in between Shepard and my original character named Beckett. Let me know how you all feel about these. It'll encourage me to write more. Thanks to everyone for reading my work so far; leaving feedback is extremely edifying. The more positive comments I get (or suggestions towards these), the faster I write. Oh, and music helps me tremendously, too, classical, in particular. No, it's not because Miranda listens to classical music; I grew up doing so. Incidentally, I'm not a huge fan of Nielsen, but I can understand why she is. You'll see some of my more favorite composers (or artists) come out in the chapter that describes a date in between Shepard and Miranda on the Citadel. I'll list them off at the end of the chapter so that you all can take a listen, too, if you'd like and visualize it better.


	2. An Old Friend

Chapter Two-An Old Friend

The Citadel, Widow cluster, Serpent Nebula System,

Level 5, Presidium Commons, Apollo's Cafe, 1122h, 2186

"Well, I'll be damned," Shepard remarked as he meandered over towards a very good old friend, one Corporal Albert Beckett.

Years ago, Shepard's assignment under then Captain Anderson was with this very man upon the SSV Hong Kong. At that time, Shepard had been a 1st Lieutenant, and as a matter of fact, the corporal became his first friend on the Hong Kong. Anderson naturally, had been very friendly with him as well, but Alliance fraternization rules were quite clear. Commanding officers and first lieutenants were not to be buddies. They could be comrades in arms or on friendly terms, but Anderson never called Shepard by his first name, and neither did Shepard call Anderson by his first name.

Beckett helped Shepard become the culturally savvy man that he had indeed become; he had encouraged his superior to approach women intellectually rather than by heroic deeds or hometown hero stories. There were quite a few times when that actually did work to Shepard's advantage, but there were one or two times that it did not. Throughout that whole tour, though, Beckett supported his friend like a loyal dog. He was also there when Shepard found and lost an uncle all in the same day.

_And oh yes, all that coaching eventually did work out_, Shepard thought to himself as his eyes made one last glance over towards the table Jacob and Miranda occupied. _Holy hell, did I strike gold when I met her._

Beckett whirled around, and his eyes lit up like he had just seen a new car. "Goddamnit, Shepard! It's so good to see you! Get over here!" He hopped out of his chair and gave the legendary hero a bear hug.

Once they released one another, Shepard joined his long lost friend across the table. Seconds later, a server brought over a steaming hot cup of cappuccino. "Was this what you ordered, Commander Shepard?" the human inquired.

"Yes, thank you," Shepard agreed and gave her a trivial smile. She spun upon her heel to make an exit without another word. "So, you look like you've got a few more stripes now…much more so than a corporal." He pointed to Beckett's dress blues and the various chest candy on the coat. "Staff Lieutenant now? Where are you serving?"

"The SSV Trafalgar, Commander Shepard," Beckett's eyes gleamed merrily. "Oh, and uh…congrats to you…Mr. First Human Spectre."

"Damn, that was _so_ long ago now." Shepard chuckled at that statement and stuck a finger into his cup to test the temperature of the beverage. "Guess you heard about some of the stuff that I've been doing, huh?" The coffee was a bit too hot.

"Oh, just a little." Beckett shrugged noncommittally. "You saved the Citadel three years ago, drove out the Geth, got your own freakin' ship, blew up a shit load of Cerberus bases, and um…died? Did I hear that one right, sir?"

Shepard swatted his hand at that remark. "First of all, screw the protocols. There might not be an Alliance left after this war if we survive it. Second, yep, I command the Normandy, and thirdly, yes, I did die. Then I got brought back to life."

"How?"

Shepard glanced over his shoulder to locate Miranda; she was still sitting with Jacob and looked like she was beginning to get bored. She caught his eyes but did not do anything more than _very_ slightly raise and lower her eyebrows all in less than one second. He turned back around and leaned his head to the left. "Do you see that gorgeous blue-eyed brunette over there with the black and white outfit?" he inquired.

"The knockout sitting across from the black man wearing that ridiculous looking jumpsuit?" Beckett returned. "Yeah, I see her. What about her?"

Shepard finally brought the cappuccino up to his lips and drank from it. "Ah."

"Wait, wait, wait," Beckett's thumb and index finger came to stroke his upper lip thoughtfully. "I think I've seen her somewhere before." His eyes closed as he thought and then flew open as he suddenly remembered. His fingers left his lip and snapped together. "She used to be the 2IC to the Illusive Man, right?"

"Yeah, she used to be," Shepard said and put down his giant cup onto its saucer. "She's the one who brought me back to life…somehow," he mused.

Beckett's fingers came up to meet his forehead, and he shook his head with disbelief. "What?" he roared. "How in the hell did _you_ get mixed up with…" He then lowered his voice to barely a whisper. "Did you just say that you got brought back from the dead by Cerberus?"

"Yeah; it's a _really_ long story. But that was almost three years ago; the Collectors attacked the original Normandy. The one you see there in the docking bay wasn't built by the Alliance; it was built by well, you know who now, I'm sure."

"My head is starting to hurt, Shepard. I hope you don't mind if I tell you to stop talking every now and then while you tell me this story." He wiped his eyes with both of his hands and shook his head again. "It's pretty fantastic."

"Well, I'll give you the short version, then. The Collectors wanted to harvest humans to build a human Reaper; I stopped them with with their help."

"So that's why you were on trial." Beckett's jaw twitched back and forth.

"No, I was on trial because the Alliance wanted to blame me for the Alpha Relay incident." Shepard brought the cup back up to his lips for another drink. "They weren't able to go through with it, though. The Reapers' arrival on Earth kind of killed the mood. I guess that that qualified me to become a small fry, even in the Alliance's eyes."

"So did you want to come back to the Alliance?"

"I didn't have much of a choice," Shepard said with a shrug. "They needed me, and I needed the Normandy to get this show on the road. Now every race is finally stepping up to the plate."

"Took the goddamned Asari long enough." Beckett let out a disdainful snort. "Too bad that they didn't jump in any sooner. We might have been able to help them save their planet."

"Maybe." Shepard's fingers tipped idly on the cup. "I was there…with Dr. Liara T'Soni. We went there to…well," he glanced about himself cautiously. "We went there to get some help with that huge thing the whole galaxy is working on. You know what I mean, right, Beckett?"

"I think so, yeah," Beckett agreed. "If I remember correctly, it's missing a big part."

"That's what we went to get from Thessia, but we weren't able to recover it. Cerberus beat us to the punch." He balled up one of his fists angrily. "That whole mission went FUBAR; I should've known it from the moment our shuttle hit planet side."

"Something else bad happened?"

Shepard took a large inhale and then slowly let it all out before he continued. "Yeah." He licked his upper lip and pursed his lips together. "Do you know why the Asari run the galaxy, Al?"

"They're the most technologically superior race. What of it, Shepard?"

"Yeah, well, I know _how_ they got it. And _who _gave the knowledge to them first. They _didn't_ earn it," the commander groused.

Beckett's eyebrows furrowed. "What're you getting at? Who gave them the technology and uh…knowledge?"

Shepard's voice again lowered. "The Protheans."

Beckett leaned forward towards his friend. "Run that by me again."

"I said that the Protheans were the ones who gave the Asari all of their current technology." He paused for a moment to let Beckett think about that revelation. Then he returned his voice to a normal volume. "I'm sure that they improved upon it by the exponent, Al, but make no mistake, whenever you hear one of them say 'by the goddess', they're not talking about some mystical being that protects them and does miracles. Very few of the Asari know this, by the way. In fact, probably only a handful do. Those gods that they worship or used to worship were the Protheans."

"How in the hell did you come across this…this…bombshell?"

"I _told_ you; we were looking for something to help us build the-"

"Okay, I get it now," Beckett snapped back and held up a hand. "That Asari you mentioned; I've heard about her. I think her mom was some major diplomat, right? Then she disappeared right off the galaxy map a few years ago. What did Dr. T'Soni have to say about this?"

"She was just as shocked as the rest of our party, well…except for one member."

"Why wasn't your third teammate surprised about it?"

Shepard sighed and leaned back in his chair. "I wish I could tell you about it here, but I can't, Al. I'm sorry. Maybe you'd like to come aboard the Normandy and meet him for yourself, but you _have_ to swear to me that you won't tell a living soul about him first."

"Shore leaves are becoming shorter by the day, Shepard. In fact, my all aboard time is at 1300h, and we leave the Citadel just half an hour after that. I just can't come with you, Shepard, no matter how much I want to," Beckett's tone became depressed.

"How about a transfer? We've got room; I've barely got a full crew."

"Same thing goes for the Trafalgar, Shepard." He shook his head 'no.' "But if they were fully staffed over there, you can bet that I'd say yes in a heartbeat. I saw a turian walking around with a quarian earlier this morning on the Commons talking about you; do they belong to your crew?"

"Garrus and Tali? Yeah, they sure do. The two of them have been with me ever since I assumed command of the original Normandy. He's the gunnery chief, and she's my second engineer."

"You've changed your opinions about working with aliens, haven't you?"

"Yeah, guess I have. Good thing I never went to that meeting with Cerberus back in the day. I showed you that card that that one operative gave me, didn't I?"

"You said that you'd think about going to it, and a part of me hoped that you wouldn't." Beckett gave him a grin. "Neither of us knew anything about them all those years ago; they were still part of the Alliance at the time. But I still had a bad feeling about it all."

"I'm glad to hear that you're all in one piece, by the way. Cerberus tried to space the Trafalgar, didn't they?"

"Yeah, they sure did. Bastards blind-sided us while the grave shift was running."

"Yeah?"

"We put up a good fight, and our pilot pulled some pretty insane maneuvers to evade their cruisers. He faked blowing out the aft port stabilizer and let the two cruisers get in close." Beckett held up his hands to illustrate his story. "Then he fired up the stealth drive, did a hard one eighty, and blew those fuckers away with that brand new Thanix cannon we got. Bam!" He struck his palms together.

"Nice," Shepard said with a smile. "I've got a pilot that'd do something pretty similar…-"

"Joker Moreau? Yeah, I've heard some whacky tales about that cocky bastard. But hey, you've got one of the best damn frigates in the Alliance fleet, and so why shouldn't you get a great pilot like him to match?"

"So…have you settled down yet?"

Beckett grinned, switched on his omni-tool, and brought up some holos for Shepard to look at. "You could say that. Two little girls and one of the best damned cooks I've ever known. She's gorgeous, of course, but after having two little girls, well, she's let herself go a little bit…-"

"Oh yeah?"

"I could care less about that, though. When I go home this next time, we'll be in and out of that bed like a pair of rabbits." He shook his head and laughed. "Hey, what about you, you old suave son of a bitch? I heard not too long ago, you were dating that Dr. Liara T'Soni. What's up with that?"

"Not any more," Shepard disagreed. "We broke up, actually."

"Hope her mom didn't scare you away. I remember that you said you weren't ever gonna date another asari after that tramp you screwed years ago back on Arcturus Station. What in the hell happened to change your mind?"

"I uh…" the commander scratched at the back of his head. "I got curious about the Asari…again. Celeste left out so much; Liara told me just about everything she knew about them. Plus I finally found out what that thing was that happened when they come. Did you?"

"Yeah, I eventually did talk one into telling me about a few months after you and I finished up our tour on the Hong Kong. After one drunken night of lust, I got one to finally spill the beans. Then we did it again about three more times. She wanted more, but damn…I just had no more to give that night," Beckett chuckled. "How many times did you do Liara?"

"To tell you the truth, I can't remember."

"That bad or that good?"

"That good." Shepard ran his fingers on the outer ridges of the cup.

"Why in God's name did you break up with her, then?"

Shepard shifted about uncomfortably in his seat. "Remember our conversation when I went back to Torfan? It was really fucking cold, and you complained about your balls freezing off? Then we saw that flame memorial being constructed."

"Yeah; it's a little hazy to be honest, but I think so," Beckett said with a nod. "Only took them four years to complete it. Damned government projects…stop and go funding."

"You said that I didn't want a woman to just lie on her back and scream her head off. Well, I still don't, and that was part of the problem with Liara."

"Nothing else?"

"Yeah, there were some other problems, but I'd rather not get into them right now."

"Okay, that's fine, I get it. So uh…you are seeing someone, aren't you?" Beckett took a very large gulp from the glass of water that had been sitting in front of him.

"I am." Shepard tilted his head back towards Jacob and Miranda's table. She arose now and began to walk away. Beckett's eyes followed her as he spun around, then he rotated himself back towards his friend, and all of the water that he'd just consumed spat right onto Shepard's fatigues.

"Hell's bells, my friend, I am…well…words are actually failing me right now…-" he sputtered. Ten seconds later, he recovered. "You're…you're dating her? Please tell me that I'm hallucinating or that you're pulling my leg."

Shepard grinned proudly. "No joke, Al. Miranda Lawson is the best thing that ever happened to me."

"If I hadn't just eaten a meal, Shepard, I think I would've just fainted after hearing you say that." Beckett exhaled slowly.

"You'd faint if a krogan yelled at you in your face."

"Oh yeah? Need I remind you who the intelligent person was who stayed behind those crates at that pirate base instead of charging head first into one?"

"Beckett, 1. Shepard, zip." He laughed at himself. "That was pretty stupid, I have to admit. Now I've got an army of about a billion of them ready to fight with us against the Reapers and take back Earth."

"So, back to…Miranda, did you say?" Shepard nodded, then Beckett continued his interrogation. "Yeah. What made you dump Dr. T'Soni for her?"

"You're making me sound like the galaxy's biggest asshole!"

"Well, I guess I did get ahead of myself, there, sorry."

"You're not wrong, though." The commander finished off his cappuccino. "I almost screwed things up for myself with both of them."

Beckett's palm slapped the table. "Oh, now don't tell me that you…-"

Shepard grinned sheepishly and shrugged. "Let's just say that I didn't end up with a broken nose this time."

Beckett rolled his eyes. "You bastard."

"I know, I know. I'm lucky Miranda still was interested in me." Shepard's cocky grin faded instantly. "I apologized to her…as well as Liara. I should probably rot in Hell for what I did…probably still will as a result of that."

"She obviously forgave you, though. I tell ya, Shepard…if I were a woman, I'd probably have kicked you in the nuts…and a few times at that."

"I have to admit that I was a bit…worried about how things would turn out. Ever since then, though, we've…ironed some things out." He paused to lick his lips. "And we've still got a lot more ironing to do, you know, to make the two of us work."

"Good luck with that. So, you two are serious?"

"I think so."

"You think? Shepard, at a time like this, you shouldn't take too much time to _think._ _ Carpe diem_, man. Get serious! You look like you love her. Don't you?"

Shepard broke away eye contact with his friend and heaved a sigh. "I think I do. She told me so not too long ago."

"And why in the hell didn't you say it back to her, you louse?"

Shepard was speechless; he didn't expect Beckett to jump down his throat. _He's changed so much throughout the years. Marriage must have either broken him or made him stronger. Maybe I should find out which._

"Guess I'm too scared to make a big commitment like that," he admitted.

"You? Scared? Commander Shepard, the savior of the galaxy is scared of one woman?" Beckett jeered. When he saw Shepard look down at his hands and start to nervously pull on his fingers, he calmed himself down. "Then again, I haven't seen her get angry. Hell hath no fury-"

"Than a woman scorned, I know…William Congreve." Shepard interlaced his fingers and began to twiddle his thumbs. "Charles Dickens and Shakespeare wrote much better stuff."

Beckett took this moment to finish his water and glanced at Shepard's wet uniform. "Sorry I spat all over you. The next time you say something _that_ shocking, try not to do it when your best friend's got his mouth full. You were lucky it was water."

Shepard broke out into a bout of uncontrollable laughter for about ten seconds straight; everyone else at the cafe stared at him with complete befuddlement. He eventually calmed down and once again met his beet-red friend's eyes. "I'll remember that next time I see you. So, can I buy you a nonalcoholic drink?"

Beckett peered at his omni-tool, which began to flash a brighter amber saturation. "Not this time, old friend," he said with a forlorn smile. "I've got some shopping to do while I'm here. That was my half an hour reminder to get my ass in gear." He arose from his seat, and Shepard did the same.

"It was really great to see you again, Al." He reached a hand out towards him, and Beckett shook it.

"And this time, keep in touch with me, you sneaky son of a bitch."

"SSV Trafalgar, huh?"

"Yep. I've got my own office now; I serve as the XO."

"All right, that's a promise."

Beckett took one last look around the Presidium and saw Miranda talking to an asari. He couldn't tell who the asari was, but he couldn't help but wonder if it was Liara T'Soni. "Shepard, I've got one last piece of advice for ya. Although I don't know your Miranda Lawson all that well, I do know something about women in general."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah; I do kinda happen to be married, remember?"

"Lay it on me, Al."

"It's short and sweet." He punched Shepard in the arm softly. "Shit or get off the pot."

"What?"

"You heard me, Shepard. Shit or get off the pot. Take care of her."

"I will. I miss you."

"Okay, and on that weird note, I'm outta here." Beckett waved goodbye to him.

**A/N**-Okay, for those of you who have no godly clue as to who Albert Beckett is, then perhaps you'd care to peruse my novel "Cultivation". Like the Mass Effect writers are so proud of their James Vega character, so I am with this guy. No, he's nothing like James Vega, as you've likely gathered. Yes, he does borrow a few 'blue collar' idioms, but he is a marine. But he's no regular marine, either. And…for those of you who don't know who Celeste is, she makes an appearance in that novel as well. Yeah, yeah, I know. Cheap shot at advertising, but what do you want? I do my own marketing. Let's just say that Celeste might know Matriarch Aethyta, and that's all I'll disclose about that little tidbit. You'll just have to read it if you'd like to know about her. Ha!


	3. A Very Expected Rendezvous

Chapter Three-A Very Expected Rendezvous

The Citadel, Widow cluster, Serpent Nebula System,

Level 5, the Presidium Commons, 1215h, 2186

It wasn't very often when Miranda found herself pondering for a few minutes over how a conversation was going to happen, unless it had to do with a mission or an assignment. But she respected Liara T'Soni; she was just as strong as her mother now, if not just as wise. Being the potentially most powerful person in the underworld of the galaxy also made things a bit more intimidating, too.

Three years ago when Miranda first worked with her to find Shepard's remains, she found Liara to be naive and love-sick. She couldn't understand why in the Milky Way galaxy Liara seemed to be head over heels in love with Commander Shepard. Now she found herself almost in similar circumstances.

Miranda crossed the Presidium grounds just as Liara finished sending a message upon a data pad. She set the device onto the ground, heaved a huge sigh, and leaned against the railing once more upon her forearms. The Asari didn't even seem to notice the Aussie as she made her way over towards her at first. "Liara, can we talk?" she asked and approached her left side.

"Oh, Miranda!" Liara nearly jumped and then held a hand over her chest to calm herself down. "Goddess, you scared the living daylights out of me."

"Apologies; I hadn't realized that I still had that effect upon people I know," she smirked. "Are you free, or do you need some time alone to yourself?"

"It's nice to be able to talk to someone else who actually knows your real name. Or what you really are like as a person," Liara nodded and turned her body towards her. "Three years ago, I never would have imagined us talking to another like this."

"Neither would I," Miranda confessed with a smile. "And you could say…our roles have ironically been reversed to a degree."

Liara's eyebrows knit together while she was contemplating Miranda's insinuation about her own relationship with Shepard. Reality dawned upon her, and she agreed. "Yes, they have."

"I wanted to thank you…for that information you gave…about Oriana's boyfriend to Shepard. He told me about Freedom's Progress, and the odd thing about the whole situation is that I thought as of today that we'd be striking Cronos Station. Last night, he said that had wanted to move up the assault, but here we are today, on the Citadel."

"I'm truly sorry about that, Miranda; I know how much you're looking forward to it, as am I. Perhaps we desperately needed some supplies, and Shepard just wanted to make sure that everything was in order. You know how much of a procrastinator he is."

"And spontaneous, the bloody oaf." Miranda also leaned heavily upon the railing and sighed. "I can't tell Ori about it yet. She's had so much to deal with in the past year. How crazy is it to find out that you've got an older sister twin and an egomaniacal father that was obsessed with making himself out to be the ultimate champion of humanity as well as our species the apex of the galaxy? Then to top it all off, she has no clue where her foster parents are now and can't contact them even if she wanted to!"

"What are their names? I could use my contacts to find that information out for you," Liara offered.

"I appreciate that, Liara, I really do." She paused to give some thought to it. "His name is Silas and her name is Lilith; the surname is Harrison. The last thing I knew about them was that they were living in New Costeau on Trident."

Liara's omni-tool glowed as it recorded that information. "If I find anything, I'll let you know, Miranda. And don't worry, I won't burden your sister with this information or Shepard, unless you want me to, of course."

"No, they both have enough to worry about right now," Miranda shook her head 'no'. "Especially him. I know you do yourself, with your…new responsibilities and such, but at least you can do that in secret without someone constantly chastising you for every decision you make."

"Sometimes I wonder just how much longer that'll remain under wraps," Liara gave a short laugh through her nose. "I think everyone on the Normandy now knows and now Urdnot Wrex, too."

"That Prothean probably doesn't. In fact, it seems like he doesn't seem to care much about anything other than slaughtering the Reapers. I thought that _I_ came off as being anti-social around the crew back when the ship was under Cerberus colors. He's about ten times worse than I ever was." She made a gesture towards herself. "But I think I can sort of understand why."

"Yes, well, how do you think you'd feel if you woke up to a completely different galaxy than the one you grew up and lived in? I don't think that it would be a seamless transition."

"It most certainly wouldn't. Here I grew up without a mother and was pushed to meet preposterous goals by someone I unfortunately had to call my father. But at least I grew up during a time of relative peace. Wasn't he born when the Reaper war had been already going on throughout the whole galaxy?"

"Yes, Shepard must have told you that, didn't he?" Without waiting for her response, Liara went on. "He says that the first thing he remembers is that he saw his world burning. I can't help but think of the children that are being born right of this moment…or the ones that are just learning to speak. How does a mother explain to her son that his father went away to serve in a war that we might never win? Or how can she explain what peace means?"

"I think that it might be possible to explain peace but not illustrate it completely. Well, hang on a minute, maybe there is a way." Miranda brushed some of her hair behind her ears. "Didn't Shepard broker a deal between the Turians and the Krogan? Aren't the Quarians now living on Rannoch with the Geth and not constantly wandering about space?"

Liara lightly smacked herself upon her forehead and ran her gloved fingers through her scalp crests. "How could I forget? I was there on Rannoch when Shepard was firing that syncing laser upon that Reaper destroyer. Watching him roll from one side to the other of that cliff as it tried to incinerate him was making my heart pound in my chest so hard that I thought it was going to explode. And then when the Quarian fleet finally killed it, everyone was so relieved, myself and Tali included."

"So how did this treaty go down?"

The Shadow Broker rolled her eyes. "The Admiral of the Heavy Fleet…Han Gerrel, I think was his name…he started to fire upon the geth. Tali tried to order them to stand down, but the Fleets wouldn't listen. Then Shepard spoke to him. Goddess, I don't know how long that whole thing played out…it seemed like an hour…the arguments that went on between him, Tali, Gerrel, and Koris…"

"Shepard ultimately convinced the moron to stand down, didn't he?"

"Yes. Then Legion…the avatar of the Geth…he gave his life so that all of the Geth could have true consciousness. They now all are truly alive thanks to him, and they honored his wish to make peace with the Quarians."

"And to think that I…that I once thought about giving it over to Cerberus' cyber weapons division," Miranda mused and bit her lip. "If Shepard had actually listened to my advice…naturally I wasn't surprised to hear that he wanted to start it up and interrogate it. He had no qualms about opening up that tank that Grunt came in; he even dismissed that Cerberus officer that I had posted to guard the port cargo hold. Did Shepard ever tell you about Legion?"

"No. When was this?"

"About a week before we went through the Omega 4 relay, we boarded a derelict Reaper to track down its IFF signal in order to gain access to safely travel through it. That was how the Collectors could easily disappear from sight, and why no ship had previously made it back. While the Normandy was there, Shepard, Garrus, and I discovered that we were not alone upon the Reaper. The Cerberus team that had been sent to study it went missing; they unfortunately all became indoctrinated and attacked us. Actually, they were all husks by the time we got to them."

"Did you know anyone there?"

"Yes, I knew Dr. Chandana, the project lead. He helped me write my dissertation regarding the use of modern nanotechnology and the assimilation of-"

Liara's eyebrows arose with confusion. Miranda took note of her body language and shook her head as if to say 'never mind'.

"Anyhow, Legion was also onboard the Reaper doing its own research to assist the Geth ascertain knowledge about some kind of virus that the Reapers had constructed. It would be one that would forever change the equations in all geth's logic; one that would change them all into those things you all fought nearly four years ago under Saren's leadership."

"I believe that I remember Legion calling them heretics," the asari recollected.

"Right. So, Legion had been attacked by several husks; we had just blown up the Reaper core, and now it was lying in a pile on the floor. Garrus told Shepard to leave it, and I recommended taking the geth with us. He took it, then we got the hell off of the ship before it crashed into the brown dwarf beneath our orbit, and back onto the Normandy."

"So that was when you suggested handing the geth over to Cerberus?"

"Yes, it was after I'd finished writing my report up to the Illusive Man, of course. I was actually going to brief him myself about our entire mission in the com room until Jacob came in and started to argue with me about what Shepard had done. Though after what he experienced on Eden Prime, I hardly blame him for being a little…rattled over the ordeal."

"I like him; he's a very dedicated and earnest young man. It's good that he found someone to love, too." Liara wistfully looked away from Miranda.

_Oh, bloody hell. I hope that she's not going to bring up the two of us_, Miranda thought to herself. _Or Shepard and myself._

"So obviously Shepard didn't follow your advice," she pressed. "You know I've…been rather curious of something about you two."

_Damnit. Here we go_.

"About me and Jacob, or about me and Shepard?" Miranda inquired.

"If you choose not to answer me, I understand, but…I know what drew me to Shepard. But," Liara hesitated as she thought over her words very carefully, "what about you? Was it because of his determination? His charms, his wit?"

Miranda opened her mouth to speak but found her throat suddenly dry up. The thoughts were there; now why the hell weren't the words?

"Perhaps there was something you could give him that I couldn't…and not in the form of conversation, I mean," Liara remarked as she licked her lips unconsciously. "Something physical or mental in the act?"

Miranda felt herself grow extremely uncomfortable now; her cheeks began to flush. Liara now saw this and took a step back. "Oh, pardon me, that was incredibly forward of me, Miranda. Let's…let's just pretend that I never said that, shall we?"

The Aussie nodded her agreement. "I can if you can." She pushed herself off of the rail and turned to face Liara with the beginnings of a smile upon her face. "But…maybe if we survive this crazy war…we'll have to…compare notes someday."

"I'd like that." Liara's face brightened instantly. "Maybe we could…trade secrets? And not necessarily about Shepard, I mean."

"I might have to watch what I say around you, or you might just…flay me alive with your mind." Miranda's expression turned into a closed mouth grin.

"Goddess, I'm never going to live that one down, am I?" Liara sighed and shook her head. "My father also teased me about saying that."

"We'll have to do this again sometime. I'd better go; it looks like Shepard's finally finished catching up with one of his old Alliance friends." Miranda's eyes had ventured away from Liara's; Shepard had just gone over to Taylor's table, no doubt to collect her. He was now sweeping the Presidium with his eyes. "And he might attempt to coerce one of those C-sec agents into tearing the Citadel apart for me unless I make it back to him in no fewer than thirty seconds."

"Yes, he's always been a bit…over protective," Liara agreed and retrieved the data pad from the ground.

"Possessive, you mean," Miranda corrected her and began to make rather hasty strides back towards Apollo's Cafe.

_But I still love him in spite of that_. _Sentimental bastard._

**A/N**-You had to know that it was coming. I had the b**** fight in between Ashley and Miranda, so this was also bound to happen. Notice how tame their conversation was in comparison, I might add. Some people have paired the two of them together, (instead of Shepard and Miranda or Shepard and Liara). I can't really see that happening, to tell you the truth, mainly because Miranda doesn't swing that way. But I think that she and Liara could actually become friends, probably pretty close ones at that. They were both raised by single parents and probably had affluent lifestyles. Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed the appetizer; the main course will be served soon.


	4. A Very Well Planned Prelude

Chapter Four-A Very Well Planned Prelude

The Citadel, Widow cluster, Serpent Nebula System,

Level 5, the Presidium Commons, 1234h, 2186

About one minute later, Miranda slowed down her pace just as Shepard was about to flag a C-sec agent down. "Looking for me?" she casually wondered.

"There you are," he growled and bit his lower lip. "I was about to make an inquiry with-"

She silenced him by raising one finger to his mouth and snaked her arm around his. "What's on the agenda for the rest of our trip here?"

"We need to stop by the Spectre office next. I want to see if any of our agents there found out anything about the Tasale system…specifically, I want some intel on Illium." He guided the both of them up the stairs back to the lift.

"Illium? You could've just asked Liara." Miranda cast a suspicious glance towards him.

"I did, and her reports were about Nos Astra. However, the agent had sketchy details, and she suggested that I check it for some better intel."

"I find it rather difficult to believe that a spectre would have better information than-"

He whisked her into the elevator and gave her a quick kiss upon her lips as the doors closed. His mouth became all the more demanding as she moaned into it, and he wrapped his arms around her waist to bring her closer towards himself. Her fists grabbed some of his leather jacket and his t-shirt underneath as she increased her fervor to pull upon both of his lips with her own. She alternated her lip movements and quickened her pace as she heard him finally groan with approval. Shepard's tongue was about to invade her mouth, but she suddenly broke the kiss and stepped out of his hands.

"What's wrong with you?" he frowned.

Miranda gave him a peeved look; the elevator had stopped upon the fourth floor about ten seconds ago, revealing two very embarrassed Asari who had been standing there and saw quite a bit of their steamy kiss.

"Our apologies. We'll take the next one," one said and was about to push the button again when Shepard stepped forward to stand in the way of the sensor. He gave them a very large closed-mouth smile and made a huge overture of 'ladies first' with both of his arms. "No, really, we can wait," she commented.

"But I insist, ladies."

They both returned his smile as they stepped inside, and Miranda proceeded to scoot over more closely to Shepard to allow them some more room. Her heeled boot then mashed itself onto his; naturally, it didn't cause him any pain because he was wearing steel toed ones, but her action caused him to give her a 'what did I do now' expression?

She leaned over towards his ear. "Just you wait, Council Spectre," she hissed. "And why in the hell is your shirt wet?"

After what seemed like about an hour, the elevator finally stopped upon the embassy floor, and both parties abandoned it.

"Have a pleasant day, Commander Shepard," the Asari both told him. "Goddess be with you."

Shepard waved his palm over the sensor to go into the office; the system V.I. acknowledge him by name as he strolled inside and gave an angry chirp at Miranda as she followed him. "Unauthorized visitor," it declared. "Please do not enter, Ms. Lawson."

"Piss off," Shepard spat back at it. "_I'm_ authorizing her."

"Very well, Commander Shepard. Rewriting protocols," the V.I. responded back neutrally. "Miranda Lawson, human, formerly belonging to Cerberus, now authorized by Shepard, human, Spectre elite status."

"I'm surprised you didn't shoot it; you're showing a remarkable about of restraint these days, Commander Shepard," Miranda teased.

"Someone taught me once long ago that shooting or damaging electronics first isn't always the best solution," he remarked with a shrug.

"And who would that be?" She folded her arms as she expectantly waited for an answer; she was hoping that he would say her, but that might not be the case.

"EDI." Shepard purposefully traveled over to the door that led to the shooting range and unlocked it with his omni-tool.

"Haven't you forgotten something, Shepard?" Miranda signaled his attention to the three terminals that stood just outside of the range to the left.

"Nope." He shook his head and made a large sweeping gesture in front of himself again. "Please, Ms. Lawson; I do so hope that you'll be able to join me for a few rounds."

"And I sincerely hope you're jesting if this is supposed to be your idea of a date," she scoffed and was about to turn upon her heel to leave. Shepard gently seized her by the arm and steered her inside. He promptly locked the door behind her with the omni-tool and rapidly ran his fingers over its holo screen. Seconds later, his speaker upon the omni-tool activated and began to play the "Thunder and Lightning Polka" as written by the famous composer Johann Strauss. "What in God's name…?" she stammered in disbelief.

He went over to the workbench nearby, selected a mattock assault rifle from the rack, and started to check it. His head swayed back and forth to the quick tempo, while his lips and tongue whistled to the tune. Shepard loaded and modified the weapon in about thirty seconds. He then rapidly assembled a locust submachine gun, refilled the clip, and handed the finished product to her well before the time the song finished.

The next song that began to play was of the same time period but was much more sweet: "The Barber of Seville Overture" by Giovanni Rossini. Shepard pranced over to the target computer and punched in a distance right in time to some of the beats. Miranda's jaw flung open in shock as his thumb mashed down upon in time perfectly to the break just before the strings began to play by themselves. The targets sailed away from them and traveled back about thirty feet.

He hefted the gun up towards one of them and started to fire the assault rifle in time to some of the melody. Unfortunately, the rate of fire from the mattock wasn't quite as fast as the tempo of the song, so it didn't quite match up. Just before he made his last shot of the clip, he shot a smirk over at her. The slug ended up right in between the target's eyes, and he blew the end of the barrel off before ejecting the clip with his mouth. "Want to try? That locust has certainly got a quicker firing rate than this thing," he gave her a lop-sided beam.

"Shepard, this has got to be…I…I…" She still stood there in disbelief holding the gun at her side, and he grabbed it back from her with a shrug. Shepard tossed the rifle down onto the floor carelessly.

"Okay, then I'll give it a whirl." As the motif repeated, he took aim with the submachine gun with one hand and deftly fired the gun again. After he ejected the clip, he made a cocky nod with his head towards the target. "Yep, much better."

She rolled her eyes in utter annoyance and was about to snatch the gun away from him, but he tossed the empty gun behind himself onto the work bench. "Nope. This isn't your cup of tea. I can see that already," he admitted. Shepard then stopped the current track, then completely changed the mood when he began the next one. A heavily reverberated acoustic guitar and synthesizer with a beautifully haunting Latin melody in a minor key began to play. "Humor me, if you'd please, Ms. Lawson."

He then pulled out a carnifex pistol just as a man's tenor voice started to perfectly sing in Spanish, lifted her right hand reverently, and closed her fingers tenderly around the grip. Shepard gently led her to the center of the room, stood directly behind her, and then guided the both of their hands up to aim upon a target. He took her other hand in his, interlaced their fingers, and laid them to rest upon her waist. "I have no idea what in the hell he's singing, but there's no doubt in my mind that he's trying to express how he feels to his one and only love," Shepard whispered into her ear. "Together, Miranda. Just one shot."

Her breathing had quickened long ago, and she found it very hard to concentrate throughout his seduction. "Shepard…"

When more stringed instruments joined the song, he squeezed harder upon her left hand and kissed her ear. "Please." She tried to pull away, but he pressed his body into hers and suckled upon the very edge of her ear again.

The ballad next transitioned into a new higher key, and she found herself almost melting into him now. He was completely controlling them both; his finger found its way onto the trigger as he peered around her. Shepard inhaled deeply to take aim and then as the song climaxed, he let out a breath as well as one shot. Naturally, it was a perfect headshot. "There are no words I could find…in English, anyhow," he confessed. "So I figured that this guy could do it better than I."

She released her grip from the gun, spun around, cupped his jaw, and gave him the most enflamed kiss that she possibly could. He forgot about the gun, let it fall onto the ground, and responded warmly to her. Their kiss finished just as the vocalist hit his last high note, and the guitar's evocative but gorgeous solo came back. He let go of her lips first and leaned his forehead against hers. "I think that I may come to actually think of target practice as less of a chore now thanks to you," she mused. "And somewhat more as a prelude to making love."

"Good. Want to try another one?"

She let out a breathy laugh, and he drew her in for another kiss before she could object. Miranda tore herself away just centimeters away from his lips. "I'm actually somewhat curious to see what you'll do next."

Shepard grinned, began another track, and the sound of a mezzo soprano's sonorous but silvery trill as well as a full orchestra filled the gun range. "I think this one's from an opera." He was about to pick up the pistol from the floor, but then she closed her eyes, reached for him again, and affixed her lips to his again.

She tore herself away from him for no more than a few seconds, just to let one more startled but mostly coherent sentence out. "La Bohème; I love this opera. How did you-"

He grinned and raised an eyebrow. "Oriana's got a big mouth."

"You must have conned her into that information somehow."

"Whether there's a will, there's a way."

"Oh, you'll tell me everything soon. Very soon." Miranda teased his lips with hers; he returned her playful nips. The swelling dynamics of the piece caused her to deepen her kiss and roughly pierce his mouth with her tongue. He opened his mouth even more to let her explore him as she so desired and let himself get lost in the moment.

Her hands caressed the back of his neck and swept through his hair as if she were stroking a very soft animal. Finally, he was able to respond back as she gasped for air; she did not have to wait long. He hugged her even closer to himself, let one hand wander down onto her hip, and then softly squeezed one of her cheeks upon the soprano's last sustained note.

The same singer who had been previously singing in Spanish returned again with another Latin ballad; this time his words poured forth in English. As the slow ponderous beat began to enrapture them, Shepard's other hand left her waist and came to rest upon her other cheek. "I wish I could sing like him," he broke away to say several seconds later.

"Doesn't matter," Miranda responded and licked both of their lips to clean away their saliva. "Don't stop, oh, God, don't stop," her voice became incredibly heavy. The bass line came in, and she moved in again to capture his lips with her own.

Shepard's omni-tool suddenly stopped playing music as the harsh real world sound of a tintinnabulation came through to interrupt them. Miranda impatiently released him and groaned with disapproval. "Damnit, why does it have to be now?"

He sighed as well, wiped his very damp chin off, and took a moment to slow his own breathing down. The identity of the caller could not be verified, which he found highly obnoxious. "Yes, what is it?" he practically barked into the omni-tool.

"Shepard, was this a bad time?" Tali's meek voice came across the line.

"What is it, Tali?" he soughed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm really sorry, but, I just remembered that the Normandy could really use another one of those thermal pipes you bought. It'll help us-"

"I know what it's for. Consider it done. I'll get there after I leave the Spectre office." Shepard tersely ended the call and leaned his body against the shooting range's rail. "Wonder if she did that on purpose. She's always been jealous of you."

"It's uh, probably for the best. We seem to have attracted some attention to ourselves yet again," Miranda responded kindly and motioned with her head towards a Salarian and an Asari who had been standing there in the doorway.

"We heard that there was a security breach here," Jondam Bau informed them as he glanced upon his omni-tool.

The Asari lowered her weapon and shoved it into a holster upon her hip. "Never thought about using a target range for sex," she mumbled to herself. "I kind of like it, Shepard. Kinky…sorry about the disturbance."

"Stupid V.I.," Shepard grumbled and retrieved the fallen weapons. "Should've shot the damned thing."

"Well, if you had done so, then it might have interrupted your romantic foreplay quite a bit earlier. At least you two had _some_ privacy," the salarian commented. "Besides, the alert came from the Normandy. I'm not sure why, but well, we had to check it out…-"

"I knew it; it _was_ her. When we get back, I'm going to sit her down and-"

"Just exactly how long were the two of you standing there?" Miranda's arms crossed themselves defiantly against her chest.

"Long enough to be jealous of you," the asari quickly replied with a chuckle and left.

"I will likely never completely understand your species' sexual urges but can definitely appreciate your taste in music," Bau shrugged. "Apologies to you again, Commander Shepard and…Ms. Lawson, was it?" He also made a quick exit.

"Lovely; now that _that_ moment was ruined, shall we make our next stop?" Miranda questioned Shepard.

"No," he shook his head. "Let's just make a change of scenery. I spent three hours selecting this music for us, and I'd like to make up for some lost time. Six months, as a matter of fact."

Touched by his honesty, she merely nodded in response and helped him put the weapons back onto the bench. In fact, she could hardly disagree with him. She yearned for him desperately during those six months, and a tiny part of her had wanted to leap into his arms when they first met on the Citadel all those months ago. However, Miranda's propriety took over, and she had merely given him nothing more than a chaste peck on the cheek. She and Shepard had certainly made up for their celibacy later on in that apartment she rented and several times more on the Normandy when she joined it. Apparently, that still wasn't enough in Shepard's mind, not that she'd ever complain about it to him.

They quietly rode the lift down to the docking bay, and Shepard said a few sentences to a turian who was standing by the valet parking that overlooked it. He also happened to shove a credit chit into the turian's hands, but Miranda's peripheral vision spotted it.

Moments later, the turian unlocked a sleek black Tennekont luxury car, and as the two doors opened, Shepard gestured with his head to Miranda to get inside. After the doors closed, he gunned the engine, and lifted the car into the air to glide through the Citadel's busy traffic lanes. "And pray tell, where are we going?" Miranda inquired.

"A little place that Garrus took me once. We won't be disturbed again; I've set my omni-tool to block _any _incoming call. Just do me a favor and remind me when we're done to turn it back on," he laughed at himself. "I wouldn't want to be late for my own all aboard call. This time, my executive officer doesn't happen to be with me, so I might not be able to get away with it."

"You ass."

"It's all yours when we get up there, love. Hold your horses."

"How much of this did you actually have planned?"

"Oh, now…a magician never reveals his secrets."

"He does to whoever's helping him perform the show." She arched her eyebrow upward to the Presidium's artificial sky.

"I went through a heavy interrogation training program when I became an N7," Shepard remarked.

"Cerberus also requires extensive training in that area. And I underwent _both_ sides of the coin." Her eyes narrowed quickly as she studied him. "Your resistance will be futile by the time I'm done with you."

"Wasn't that a line from some Star Trek series?"

"What's Star Trek?"

"Never mind."

After he parked the car, he dug into the backseat to pull out a large quilted blanket, a picnic basket, a large ice filled bucket, and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc in it. "This isn't exactly from New Zealand, I know, but, well, I guess we'll just have to make do with what Liara's agents could get for us. Don't ask me where this came from."

Miranda picked up the bottle and tried to read the label, but it was so worn out that she could not ascertain its origin either. "It's already open, I see."

"Well, they wouldn't let me take sharp things into the Citadel. The regulations are so damned strict that I can't take a corkscrew in with me, but yet I can drive up to the top of the station and nobody here cares? Explain that one to me if you can." He scratched his forehead and also lifted two glasses out of the picnic basket.

"I'd rather not begin to try." Miranda took out the cork and poured the translucent liquid into each glass one at a time. She handed the first one to Shepard; as she finished her own, she set the bottle back down, and carefully tapped his glass with her own. "So what else is on that wonderful inspirational musical playlist that you spent hours laboring over?"

"Ha, coming right up." He took a swig of his wine and played around with his omni-tool for a brief moment. "Shall we?" Shepard motioned to the blanket, and they both sat down as the next track began to play. Instead of sitting across from her, he plopped himself right next to her and hugged his knees to his chest. "I think that this is from-"

"La Tosca," she interrupted him as she closed her eyes to listen to the clarinet's sweet cry. A tenor's flawless Italian and sweet but mellow voice followed just after it.

"What's it about?"

"It's set in 1800 in Naples, Italy during the Napoleonic War and is incredibly tragic, like most operas."

"So everybody died in it?"

Her eyes snapped open as she remembered the details. "To put it bluntly, yes. The hero is talking about how the stars are shining brightly in this ballad."

He consumed some more of his wine and glanced at the bottle that was now three-quarters full.

"I think I'll probably need the rest of that to forget about what could happen if this all goes south like those stories," she confessed.

"Then let's think about what we have here and now. God forbid that I ever take you for granted." He lifted her fingers to his lips and began to kiss each one tenderly.

Miranda leaned her head against his shoulder and nestled it against him as she relaxed herself. Her eyelids slowly fluttered closed again.

"Did I ever tell you about the man I met just a couple of hours ago?"

"No."

"His name was Albert Beckett; we served under then Captain Anderson on the SSV Hong Kong. He was a corporal then, and I was a 1st lieutenant. I'm glad that I got to see him again; he's now a staff lieutenant and XO on the SSV Trafalgar. We lost touch ages ago, just after I became a Spectre." Shepard paused to drink some more of his wine and continued. "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be the softie who's currently playing you Italian operas and wooing you with my sophisticated vocabulary."

"Is that so?" Miranda hummed and moved herself so that she could place a very sumptuous kiss onto his neck. She felt him get goosebumps and smiled into his neck as she continued to move against his vibrating larynx.

"Hmm, yes." He exaggerated his vocal chords' rumbling and charged up his biotic implant to give her a bit more stimulation. "Beckett had me convinced that the way into a woman's heart was not necessarily to boast of my most impressive record but rather appeal to her senses…and intelligence."

"A very wise man indeed; he was your subordinate, you say?" she asked in between her nuzzling.

"Yeah, and he ended up getting married…lucky dog..."

"Lucky, you say?"

"Sure; he's got two kids already."

Miranda withdrew herself from his neck and took a drink of wine. Her eyes now stayed fully open. "You admire him," she stated.

"Well, let's just say that it'd be nice to have what he does…someday." Shepard shrugged and finished off his glass. "Like I said, though, I'm happy with the present. Albert's away from his wife, whereas I've got you now."

"You always know just what a woman wants to hear, don't you?" She gave him a wink, and the corners of her mouth pulled away to give him a smile with teeth.

"Seems that I've got the cold and viciously brutal Cerberus interrogator on her back. What does she plan to do to her victim now?" He set down his glass.

"On her back, hmm? You've got quite an imagination, Commander." Miranda jabbed a biotically charged finger into his side. He flinched, and that gave her enough momentum to shove him onto his. She hovered over him. "That was far too easy. I couldn't have so much as-"

She never got to finish her sentence as he grabbed her and crushed her to his lips. Several seconds later, he released her lips from his. "You're right; it was," he chuckled. "And you fell right for it, Ms. Lawson. You're becoming more and more malleable to my touch."

"It's the wine." He let her go from his arms; she set down her wine glass as well.

"Then by all means, please do keep guzzling it down."

"Who _is _this man? This is the third song you've played with him singing now," Miranda demanded.

"Josh Groban, from the early 21st century. I knew you'd like him." Shepard started to get up, but she laid a hand onto his chest.

"Care to set that playlist to repeat? There's so much more I'd like to know about you, Commander Shepard."

"That's not an unreasonable request," he agreed and did so. "Did we ever establish who was the captive and who would be the interrogator?"

"No, but I'll let you guess." She roughly shoved his legs apart and slid her voluptuous body in between them as the music picked up some pace. "Now…perhaps you'd care to enlighten me as to how you came to be such a selfless lover."

"Perhaps you'd care to find out."

"It is always best to have hands on training." She lowered herself down to his lips and rubbed herself against him. "I'm a firm believer in both theory _and_ practical applications."

"This I can definitely believe. Now put your money where your mouth is." He grabbed her derriere rather roughly, making her gasp slightly, and seized her lips with an open mouthed kiss. She ground her hips against his with a searing intensity that immediately made his nether region respond to hers.

"I told you that I have ways of making you talk," she suddenly pulled away from him and gave him a wicked grin.

"When they told me during N7 training that I'd have to face an interrogator who would try to win my trust, I never guessed that I'd be sharing a bed with her." He teased his lips upon hers with feather light touches. "What did Cerberus tell you during your training?"

"Something along the same lines." She sneaked an arm down his chest and stroked his groin. He gasped at her gentle touch but then groaned when her fingers closed around the growing bulge in his pants. "And that I wasn't to let my feelings get the better of me, no matter how much the subject begged and pleaded for me to stop."

"Christ, Miranda," Shepard practically squeaked. "The crazy thing is here, that I…" his breathing quickened. "I don't want you to stop."

"I know, you ass." Her grin got wider, and his hand suddenly flew up towards the zipper on the side of her outfit. "Oh? You still think you've got some say in how this torture is going to go?"

"If you're going to drive me crazy through my pants, you're seriously in for a world of hurt for yourself, Lawson," he growled and jerked it downward before her hand could stop him. He charged up his biotics and ran a teasing finger over her breasts.

Miranda drew in a ragged breath and wrapped her legs completely around his hips. "You heartless bastard," she began, but he silenced her with his mouth.

She pressed herself harder against him; his lips left hers to briefly grunt out his pleasure. "Just how hard did these instructors push you, Commander Shepard?" Miranda demanded.

He released his right arm from her behind, used it as leverage, and flipped the two of them so that she was on her back now. Her legs were somehow still attached to his hips, and her eyes narrowed upon his actions. "So you did manage to get her onto her back. But how long can you keep her there now?" Miranda remarked and gave him a haughty smile.

His biotics once again enraptured their bodies; he seized hold of her arms and forced them above her head with one powerful limb. Shepard jerked the zipper down, peeled away the rest of her outfit, and bent down to touch his lips onto one of her breasts.

Before he moved to the opposite one, he let his tongue just barely leave a minute amount of saliva onto it. She activated her own biotics, and the charge that went through his tongue sent him briefly backward. He did not, however, lose grip of her arms. "As long as it'll take to finish the investigation, Ms. Lawson," he finally answered her. "I estimate that another hour will do. Objections?"

Her pulse sped up, and her slate blue eyes met his. "I suppose that it will be adequate, then."

_Carpe diem,_ Beckett had told him earlier. It was high time for him to do something for her, but not just quite yet. They needed to complete their mission, the Cronos mission, and then he would tell her.

"Waiting for me to cry out your name, Shepard? You're off to a poor start," Miranda taunted him.

"Not on your life, woman." He went back to her lips.

**A/N**-Track listing is as follows:

1.) "Thunder and Lightning Polka"-Johann Strauss

2.) "The Barber of Seville Overture"-Giovanni Rossini

3.) "Un Dia Llegara"-Josh Groban

4.) "Musetta's Waltz"-from La Bohème by Puccini, sung by Kiri Te Kanawa

5.) "My Confession"-Josh Groban

6.) "E Lucevan le Stelle"-from La Tosca by Puccini, sung by Luciano Pavarotti

7.) "You are Loved"-Josh Groban

Who says that classical music is going out of style? Okay, Josh Groban does border on pop sometimes, but he's nonetheless enjoyable, I think. If you want to know who this Staff Lieutenant Beckett is, then I would suggest popping over to read "Cultivation". But if that doesn't float your boat, so be it. I'm still taking those suggestions for conversations. PM me if you'd like to have a say and reviews are most appreciated.

Just for kicks and giggles, the next 'incidental' conversation will feature our favorite vertically challenge human biotic and the 2nd human spectre. They just happen to meet in Purgatory and hit things off.


	5. Two Peas in a Pod

Chapter Five-Two Peas in a Pod

The Citadel, Widow cluster, Serpent Nebula system

Level 3, Purgatory, 1518h, 2186

**A/N-If you do not like Jack or Ash, this is your one and only warning to leave this chapter now. The next chapter will likely be a conversation with Miranda in it as well as Wrex and Bakara (Eve). I say likely because that could change if someone puts in another request.**

Ashley Williams was a bit surprised as she walked into the place. For the middle of the afternoon, the place was booming. The last time she'd been in a nightclub on the Citadel, it was in Chora's Den while Shepard paid a visit to a former Turian general by the name of Septimus Oraka and a disgraceful scum bucket that worked for C-Sec who called himself Harkin. Thankfully, Harkin didn't say anything to her, but she knew that his eyes weren't always focused on Shepard during their conversation. In fact, they wandered all too frequently near her chest. After more than one belligerent but silent stare from her, he finally paid more attention to Shepard.

Vega had offered to buy her a drink here, but like most Latinos, he had absolutely no sense of time. Three o'clock did not mean three o'clock; it mean maybe three fifteen, three thirty, maybe even three forty-five. She hoped that since he was a soldier of the Alliance that he would keep better track of time, especially since he had invited a superior officer out for a drink. She straightened up from the bar and tapped a fellow soldier on the shoulder. "Hey, sorry to bother you, but have you got the time? My damn omni-tool's been acting up for the past day or so."

He spun around, gave her a lofty smile, and activated his. "Baby, I got nothin' but time. It's all yours, too."

She groaned and rolled her eyes. "You've got two options here, jar head. Answer my question or else your mouth is gonna get a knuckle sandwich."

"Ooh, you're feisty. I like it." When she turned her body towards him, he immediately held up his hands. "Sorry, Miss BAM. It's almost three twenty."

Ashley's jaw dropped when she heard his disrespectful acronym, and her fist curled up into a ball. She lifted it up one or two feet shakily into the air but then decided against it. "You know, you're not even worth the effort," she told him with a sigh.

The salarian bartender approached her. "What's your pleasure, Spectre Williams?"

Williams gave a short chuckle. "I'm not still not used to hearing that title. I'll have a boilermaker, please."

The alien's eyes widened. "I'm afraid that I…am not familiar with…-"

"Ugh, I don't know how many times I've walked into this place and had to tell you how to make a human drink, Sabad," a female voice from behind Ashley moaned. She was relatively little in size compared to Williams but certainly made up for it with her temper and biotics. Jack walked up to the bar and stood at a right angle from her. "It's a pint of beer with a shot of whiskey. I still wonder how in the hell you're still employed here and make that two, in fact."

"Hey, I think I remember seeing you somewhere before," Ashley commented and ran a gloved finger across her lip in thought. "Weren't you on Horizon with Shepard last year?"

"Maybe. You got a name, sister? I don't just start mouthing off where I've been to every GI Jane I meet."

"It's Williams, actually. And you would be…-"

"Oh, so you're the second human spectre. I'd say congrats, but Udina lobbied the Council for it," Jack said with a shrug. "No offense or anything, I'm sure you're a great little soldier and all, but…he wanted someone who'd have his back while he shot up the rest of those aliens."

Ashley's hands went onto both of her hips. "There's no chance in hell that I'd have let him do that. And by the way, you still haven't told me your name yet."

"For now, you can call me Jack."

The salarian set their drinks in front of them. "Both are on the house…as a thank you for saving Councilor Valern," he told Williams.

"Hmm…you're not too bad there, Williams. Wanna toast our favorite Alliance golden boy?" Jack lifted up her glass after she poured the shot glass' contents into it.

Williams dunked the shot glass into her beer. "Sounds good. To Shepard." They clinked their drinks together and finished them off in one whole gulp. "So, you were part of the team that was on the mission that went through the Omega 4 relay. Wish I could've gone with you, but…-"

"Yeah, yeah. You're an Alliance woman, I get it, and you couldn't stick your neck out for a buddy because of the Cerberus connection," Jack waved her off dismissively and shook her head. "Guess that makes two of us now…not that I love every minute of being with those tight-wads."

Ashley leaned onto the bar. "Things have relaxed somewhat ever since the Reaper war started, believe me. So how'd Shepard recruit you?"

"He broke me out of prison; I might have killed some people who got in my way through life." The biotic motioned the bartender for another two drinks, who gladly obliged her. "And he helped me blow up an old Cerberus base where they used to torture me in when I was a kid. Guess that can make a person a little grateful."

"No doubt there. You mentioned that you're with the Alliance. Are you working with anyone I'd know?"

"Ah, just some little shits I picked up on the way out of Grissom Academy. Pint-sized biotics like me who think they know everything…damned teenagers. But hey, I think they're finally starting to get their goddamned acts together now." The bartender set the drinks down in front of the women again. This time Jack was the one who let the shot glass fall into the bottom of her glass, while Ashley poured hers in.

"We need them just where they are. I'm glad that you're pulling them together to help us tear those Reaper bastards a new one."

"Thanks." Jack gave her a lopsided smile. "You sound like Shepard, y'know? I'm guessing that he rubbed off on you, too, didn't he?"

"I'm not gonna lie," Ashley remarked. "He's the best hope we have for coming out of this damn mess alive."

"You used to be part of his crew, right? Before the first Normandy got blown up?"

"Yeah, that's right. And now I'm still there, nailing anything that gets in our way to grab some peace in this galaxy." She sighed and ordered another two drinks for them. "Thought I'm not too wild about our latest crew member to join up."

"Who's that?"

"Oh, she's Shepard's main squeeze. Guess he dumped Liara for her, which was a real shame, 'cause I liked Liara and him better."

Jack rolled her eyes. "Right. The cheerleader. Good. There's somebody else who agrees with me in this fucked up galaxy."

Ashley slammed her fist onto the bar as she laughed heartily. "That's exactly what she is! You're dead on, Jack. Thank you; I've been trying to find a word for her that's a step above 'bitch', and that works just fine."

"You'll never guess what I named my shotgun, then."

The next round of beverages arrived, but this time, both ladies decided to drink a bit more conservatively. "Well, she hasn't been useless, though. We raided a Cerberus base not too long ago, and she helped us get through it."

"Yeah?" Jack wondered.

"I can't go into too much detail, but…well…I guess it was good to have her there."

"Did Shepard ever tell you how much the cheerleader and me loved one another?"

"No," Ashley laughed. "He didn't go into any specifics about your beef with Lawson, but I think I remember that he mentioned your name to me once. Did either of you two break anything on the ship?"

"Well, we had a couple of nice little "chats". One was right after Shepard helped me, and one later on happened after the Collector mission. I tossed one of her office chairs into her once, but the cunt was actually fast enough to deflect it. Ugh, that fucking perfect bitch just makes me…she makes me…-" Jack charged up her implant with practically no effort whatsoever and bashed her fist into the wall next to her.

"Please be careful," Sabad instructed her. "This club is relatively new, and-"

"Relax, frog man. That's as mad as I get these days." The azure glow from her biotics ceased to surround her body while Ashley looked on in pure wonder.

"You say that Cerberus tortured you when you were a kid? Damn, wish I'd been there to help you set off the bomb."

"Well, you mentioned something about a hit on another base not too long ago, right?"

"Yeah, I did."

"If you made that one into a huge crater, then consider the next round on me."

Williams gave her a full-fledged smile. "You're all right, you know that? Thanks a lot, Jack."

"No prob."

"You know what else I can't figure out about the cheerleader?" Ashley mused.

"What?"

"I don't get why she wears those ridiculously high heeled boots and that low-cut outfit. They make her look like a cheap hustler from the wards…maybe that's where the Illusive Man first found her. Do you think that Cerberus does any-"

"I used to wear less than I do now, so I dunno. I figured that it was probably high time that I looked a little more…presentable in front of the kids. Who cares about her, anyhow? Listen, you know that asari that's on your crew? Forget her name."

"Dr. Liara T'Soni."

"Yeah, that's the one…we met up at Grissom." Jack nodded and drank a bit more beer. "Tell her that I said thanks for the stuff she sent to me earlier. But don't you know…over state it or anything. I've still gotta keep my rep; I can't afford to go soft or lose my edge now. It helps a helluva lot to stay angry when fighting those fuckers."

"It's the only way some of us can keep going," Ashley agreed. "Do you know what time it is?"

Jack activated her omni-tool to check. "It's almost four. Why? Are you all pulling outta port already?"

"Not yet. I was supposed to meet someone here for a drink, but, it's looking like he stood me up. And I see some major shit patrol duty coming up for him, regardless of his rank or if Shepard likes him," she groaned.

"Oh, you mean that big old ugly loser with the semi-Mohawk that just walked in the door?" Jack motioned Williams' attention to the entrance. "He was with Shepard when they came to Grissom Academy."

"That would be him."

"Doesn't look too bright, but hey, you can't judge a book by its cover, right?"

"No, you can't," Ashley nodded 'yes'.

Vega made his way over to the two of them and gave the ladies a huge beam. "Oh, is it ladies' night?"

"No, but you've got about three seconds to apologize to your date, you worthless piece of crap," Jack spat.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. She's not my date; she's my-" Vega held up his hands.

"LC? Yeah, that's right, Vega. And I haven't started to count yet, so consider yourself lucky." Ashley's arms crossed themselves against her chest.

"Um…"

"One…two…-"

"Hold up, here! I'm sorry; I got caught up with some things that Shepard needed me to buy for the Normandy."

"Since that list goes through me, I believe that you've just concocted yet another story of complete bullshit, LT. That might have flown with your old CO or maybe even Shepard, but for me…uh-uh. Not gonna happen," Ashley stated and shook her head.

"Aw, give me a break, Mommy. What're you drinking?" He made a gesture towards her half empty glass.

Williams followed his finger with her eyes then swiftly returned them to Vega. "It's already been paid for, Vega. Nice try. And I'm outta here…got some things to do before I head back, like get my omni-tool fixed. We'll discuss this someplace else if you want."

"Sorry, ma'am. I'll be back to the Normandy soon." He gave her a salute, which she acknowledged.

"Hey, Jack. Nice meeting you," she called over to the human biotic. "Keep in touch."

"I don't do messaging, Spectre Woman. But hey, if I ever see you again, you get the next round, huh?"

"You bet." Williams waved her hand half-heartedly in the air and journeyed towards the club's exit. _For a former homicidal criminal, I think she's calmed down a little bit. Shepard sure can do a lot of wondrous things_, she thought.

**A/N**-Okay, so if you're a Latino and felt offended by that comment I made, apologies. I spent practically the last six years of my life traveling around and working with all sorts of different ethnicities. Generally speaking, though, that was the case. That's likely why some of you might wonder why I write the word 'bugger' or might sound a bit British from time to time in my writing. I favor wit over crude humor about seventy-five percent of the time.


	6. When an Old Friend Meets a New Friend

Chapter Six-When an Old Friend Meets a New Friend

The Citadel, Widow cluster, Serpent Nebula System,

Level 2, Docking Bay E24, 1609h, 2186

The pre-fab units were now swarmed with an unbelievable amount of people. There was constant chatter going on everywhere, kids screamed loudly as they chased after one another, and the galactic news feed looped over a loud but tinny P.A. system. The male anchor appeared to look more and more haggard every time Shepard came back to the Citadel. _I guess I'm not the only one to have trouble sleeping these days._

Miranda had been desperately trying to smooth out the wrinkles in her honeycomb patterned black and white outfit, but her efforts were nearly futile. He took a sidelong glance at her as he approached the Batarian arms' terminal. "Oh, just quit fussing around, woman," he told her with an unabashed leer. "It's not like we have to hide our relationship from anyone on the Normandy anymore."

Before she could give him the daggers that he deserved for that remark, he spun around to busy himself at the kiosk. Seconds later, both a male and female krogan approached Shepard from a pre-fab unit on his right hand side. Miranda's head tilted to the side as her mind desperately tried to recall who the male krogan was. The female was a total mystery, but he was wearing blood red body armor and also had what could pass along the krogan as a smile on his face. _He might be that major chief of the krogan clan that Grunt joined. What the hell was that name? Gatatog, Nakmor, Weyrlock, no…wait, Urdnot, that's it!_

"Shepard! Good to see that you're still alive and knocked those idiot human terrorists off of this place," Wrex commented with a laugh and gave his old friend a good jab in the arm. The female krogan merely bowed her head towards him and Miranda.

"They selected a very poor candidate to try and usurp control of the station," Bakara noted. "It would have been better to use that human commander…Bailey."

"Maybe they did try. Their options were rather…limited at the time," Miranda finally spoke up and leaned against the wall of a pre-fab unit. "The Alliance Parliament is all dead, and no one in Cerberus could get in touch with anyone from Earth."

"I knew that that moron Udina would screw your species over, Shepard, like a thresher maw female does with her mate after intercourse," Wrex barked back. "Anderson was better. What happened to him, wasn't he your species' councilor?"

"He's better off serving where he currently is…back on Earth," Shepard told him. "Anderson quit the Council because they were useless, and he couldn't get things done without having a stronger voice in the Alliance. If he hadn't left them, we'd probably have lost Earth already. And what do thresher maw females do with the males?"

"They eat them, of course."

"Yes, your admiral's a very inspirational man, Shepard," Miranda agreed. "I don't think that anyone else would be able to motivate civilians into action like him…minus you, of course."

"Don't think we've met, human," Wrex said and turned towards her. "Or maybe we did, but Shepard just didn't introduce us…I saw you with him on Tuchanka once. Something you want to tell me, Shepard? What happened to you and Liara?"

Shepard completed his transaction at the kiosk and stood next to Miranda to give the next customer that was in line a chance to begin his. He ran a chagrined hand over his face. "Yeah, uh, sorry, Wrex. This is Miranda Lawson. Miranda, this is Wrex and Bakara, from Clan Urdnot. It's the same one that Grunt joined last year."

"Nice to meet a human female. Are you part of Shepard's crew on the Normandy?" Bakara wondered as she extended her hand towards Miranda. She returned her hearty handshake and then accepted Wrex's rough grip as he jerked it up and down several times.

"Sort of," Miranda replied neutrally and tried to get some circulation flowing back into her hand.

"Well? What happened to the two of you?" Wrex pressed him.

The two humans looked at one another; Shepard wore a sheepish look, and Miranda pursed her lips together. _You'd better tell him something_, her eyes told him.

Shepard gestured with his head that he wanted to move, and his party joined him as they made their way over a vacant row of benches. "Yeah, uh, Liara and I broke up. I'm seeing Miranda now."

Wrex eyed her first and then Shepard. The krogan had many years to his life, and although his contact with humans had not been very much, he knew what kind of a woman would suit Shepard's tastes best. He made a small grunt of approval after he sized her up.

"That figures. Liara's a nice alien, but she's not your type of female, Shepard. I figured that out after I heard the crew mouthing off about the two of you back on the old Normandy. I lost five thousand creds to Garrus; I said that you'd go for Williams instead." The krogan mashed his fist into his palm. "Damned Turian must have bribed Chakwas into bugging Liara's office. Oh well…looks like you finally found someone who might be worthy of you. So tell me, does she measure up?"

_I'll take that as a compliment_, Miranda told herself. _Shepard respects him a lot more than he does Grunt, so I'll give him the benefit of a doubt here._

Shepard cleared his throat. "Wrex, I'm not so sure what you mean."

"I believe that you do, Shepard," Bakara said.

"Don't you humans talk about your sexual rituals with one another?" Wrex pressed.

"Well, that's…that's a delicate topic, actually."

"Would it help if the women here removed ourselves from the situation?" Miranda inquired with the slight incline of her eyebrow.

"Uh, no. Well, let's just…not discuss that for now," Shepard stammered and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck nervously.

"Aliens," Wrex said with a huff. "Fine, I'll drop it. But you owe me for pulling your ass out of the lava back on Therum all those years ago. You flipped that Mako over about five times that trip and made the quarian puke into her helmet. Poor kid."

"Didn't I make up for that, Wrex? Your family's battle armor? Curing the genophage? Adding Grunt to your clan?"

"Humph. All right, maybe you have. So, are you shopping for parts here on the Citadel before going to hit those other numskulls with the black and yellow armor?"

Shepard glanced about himself before he answered his friend. "Possibly. Where'd you hear that?"

"From a mutual acquaintance of ours who might have happened to have shared more than one battle in bed with you. And you know, some of us were actually trying to eat in the mess at the time you two were going at it. The rest of your crew left, including Williams the first round. I tolerated it, but then I couldn't take the noise much longer afterward; I left just before you two started up the second time. That mushy asari's got a mighty pair of lungs, Shepard. You must have practically slammed her into the Void," Wrex proudly stated with an impish grin. "Oh, the news wasn't directly from her, but you know how things trickle down through the pipes these days…"

Miranda rolled her eyes and arose from her seat. "He is dying to talk about us, Shepard. You might as well let the cat out of the bag here. I'll be waiting for you by the lift on the first level by the Normandy when you're ready to leave the Citadel."

Before Shepard could voice his concern, she took off and made a beeline for the elevator. He sighed and shook his head. "Crap. Just do me a favor, Wrex."

"What's that?" the krogan inquired.

"Feed me to Kalros now. I think I'd rather sit in that thresher maw's stomach than have to go back to the Normandy with Miranda in a little while."

"Oh? What could be so bad about her? From what I know about humans, isn't she considered attractive to your kind?"

"Yes, very much so, but I have to gauge my manners with her sometimes. Miranda doesn't like to talk about us with…well…anyone else. I'm not so crazy about it myself, but, well…"

"If the two of you are in bed with one another every single night and giving one another bruises, then what's the problem?" Wrex snapped.

Bakara observed Shepard's negative body language and tapped Wrex on the arm. "Perhaps that's not how these two mate, my dear. You're not being very tactful."

"Oh, yeah? Then why is his face turning red?" He pointed to Shepard's countenance.

"That's called human embarrassment, Wrex."

"Humph. Well, then, sorry, my friend. Wanna guess what Bakara and I were doing just before we got here?"

"Wrex!" Bakara thundered and punched her husband in the chest.

"Hey Wrex, remember that asari you were telling me about all those years ago? The one who you were friends with and later were ordered to kill?" Shepard asked.

"Aleena. Yeah, well, what of it?"

"Do you think that it's possible that she might have changed her name and uh…moved elsewhere?"

The krogan let out a solitary laugh. "It wouldn't surprise me."

"Well, I think that I may have run into her a few times now, but I'm not positive," Shepard continued.

"What makes you say that?"

"You may want to take a trip down to Purgatory, Wrex, if you've got the time. I'm guessing that uh…you might find her there." He rubbed one of his eyes that had begun to bother him.

"It'll take more than that to get me to that place full of drunk pyjaks. Why don't you just come out and say what you're insinuating, Shepard?" Wrex's mighty arms crossed against his chest.

"Nah, it's not worth it. Forget I said anything about her. She probably wouldn't remember you anyway."

Wrex's eyes narrowed. "You know me too well. All right. Bakara, let's get moving."

She sighed and arose. "Good to see you again, Shepard."

"The feeling is _very_ mutual, you two. Hope to see you again soon. But if I'm right, Wrex, you owe me a beer."

A few minutes later...

Just as Miranda was about to step into the elevator, the doors opened, and a very familiar but hostile ex-member of the Normandy SR-2 was already inside. Her brown eyes sized Miranda up immediately, and Jack gave her a smirk. "Cheerleader. Where's your big Alliance hero? Thought he'd be on your leash. Or is he still two timing you and ramming that asari upside down from next Wednesday?"

Miranda's forehead and eyebrows went upwards. "Nice to bump into you, too, Jack. If you're talking about Shepard, he's meeting with an old friend of his about fifty yards in that direction." She made a gesture with her thumb. "And now if you'll excuse me, please, I have some business to attend to."

"Like what?" Jack's eyes narrowed. "You'd better _not_ have been part of that little fucked up plot that happened here two months ago, Cheerleader. I'll finish what I started back on the Normandy-both times." She jabbed a finger into Miranda's chest.

The Aussie's eyes traveled downward onto Jack's finger; she of course was fuming inside but would be damned before she'd let Jack get the better of her again. "I'd appreciate it if you'd remove that from my body, please. And for your information, no, I'm no longer with Cerberus. I'm relatively surprised that you'd jump to that hasty conclusion; don't you think that I'd have left the Normandy after we finished the suicide mission?"

Jack shrugged and complied. "Maybe you were just hanging around Shepard for a good lay. How the hell should I know? Dude seems to stick his dick in more holes than what I saw happening on Purgatory, and _that's_ saying something."

Miranda closed her eyes and mentally counted to ten. By the time she got to six, Jack interrupted her thoughts again. "Okay, look, I'm sorry. Remember that file you gave me about my mom?"

"Well, it didn't actually come from me, but, yes, I do," Miranda told her. "The Shadow Broker gave it to me through one of his agents."

"Look, Cheerleader, I already know who it is, so you can lay off the ambiguity crap, all right?" Jack rolled her eyes and motioned for Miranda to join her in the lift. Miranda hesitated for a moment while she tried to gauge Jack's motivations. "Yes, I know, it's remarkable. The ex-con can read and understands how to use fancy ten credit words just like you, now get in here. I'm not gonna attack you."

Miranda followed her inside, and Jack hit the '1' panel with the back of her fist. "You heading back to the Normandy?" she asked her.

"Probably," was all Miranda said in return and refused to make eye contact with her.

"I guess it might surprise you, too, but I'm working for the Alliance now. Did Shepard tell you?"

"Yes."

"Well, after that dumb-assed decision Shepard made to blow up a star system, I felt that it was only necessary to get the fuck out while I could."

"You know that that was to stop the Reapers from coming any earlier than they did. Shepard made the right call."

"Water over the fucking bridge, I say. You jumped ship before I did. Didn't want to let the Alliance shoot you for all your crimes, huh? It was just after those fucking annoying creatures got onto our ship…the ones that that bat-shit crazy red-head brought onto the Normandy?"

"You mean Chambers?" Miranda finally turned to look at Jack. "She only brought one with her."

"Yeah, well, it felt like a million. Don't you remember how fast those damn things multiplied? Anyhow, yeah, I stayed just until Shepard got ambushed by the Alliance and dragged him back in like a runaway pet. Then they offered me a deal to keep myself outta jail. I figured that it couldn't hurt, you know?"

"Good choice. So Shepard mentioned the fact that you were teaching at Grissom Academy, right?"

The elevator doors opened, and the two powerful human biotics walked out together through the weapon detector. "Yep. I still would be there, except for a visit from your ex-boss' fucked up black and yellow blowhards."

"Cerberus attacked Grissom Academy?" Miranda's eyebrows arose. "I hadn't heard that. Were there many students there at the time?"

"About thirty kids plus a few adults including me. We fought 'em all off though, with Shepard's help, and escaped in one of their own damned shuttles back to the Normandy. Now my students and me are kicking ass and wiping the dirt clean of those fucking Reapers bastards."

"So you're…exactly what kind of methods do you use with your students?" The two women made their way towards the observation platform.

"Whatever works to get 'em off. Guess Shepard's speeches gave even _me_ some motivation to do something right." Jack cracked her fingers and leaned against one of the rails on her hands. "Certainly nothing like your organization's quote aboveboard methods."

Miranda sighed and crossed her arms. "Look, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop calling them _my_ organization and me a cheerleader, Jack. I disobeyed a direct order from the Illusive Man and walked away from him. That mess of a faction is _nothing_ I'd call the Cerberus I joined all those years ago."

"Fine." Jack straightened and lightly kicked her booted foot against the bottom of the rail. "That info you gave me…" she paused and swallowed her pride. "I wanted to thank you for it. I went back to Eden Prime to see if I could track down my mom, but I think that she might have been taken by those Cerberus assholes."

Miranda froze on the inside. She honestly didn't know what to feel. The data that Liara had given to her about Jack's past after the two of them had met was nothing more than an olive branch, but now it looked like Jack might actually be offering her some genuine gratitude? Was this supposed to be some sort of crude effort of her returning the favor?

Before she could make a decision about her next response, Jack went on.

"And the trail ended there. Do you know where Cerberus was taking people? I never found more than a couple private messages that she left behind on a data pad in her pre-fab unit, but…well…I had to get back to Grissom Academy…-"

_Oh crap. She was probably taken to Horizon. Better be careful here._

"What did the messages say?" Miranda inquired cautiously.

"Something about some artifact they were digging up. She was working on a dig site, but then one day…she just…disappeared."

"Are you asking me if I know where they took her?"

Jack blew out a short impatient exhale through her teeth. "No, I'm asking you where you buy your goddamned lingerie, Cheerl…-I mean, Lawson."

"I uh…I might have an idea." Miranda took a quick assessment of her surroundings before she continued. _This could get explosive fast. She could lay down a very nasty shockwave before I could get one spatial distortion out. I haven't used my telekinesis for a while now…damnit, where the hell is Shepard?_

"Yeah?" Jack pressed her and took one step towards her.

Miranda licked her tongue over her lips nervously and flickered her eyes over towards the elevator. She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed Shepard pass through the weapon detectors. "Do you remember when we went to Horizon last year?" she asked Jack.

"Yeah. That place was fucking creepy. Half of the colonists had been taken by the Collectors by the time we got there. Why?"

"Cerberus moved quite a large sum of money into the colony after we went there. I assumed that it was to help the colony get back onto its feet, and to a degree, they did do just that," Miranda said and lifted the ball of her foot off of the ground. She leaned a bit of her weight onto the heel to gradually begin to shift her weight onto the heel and her other leg.

"Big goddamned surprise, Cheer…um…Lawson, they did more than that, didn't they? Just what did Cerberus do to that place?" Jack's eyes narrowed as she made her last acerbic retort.

"Hey, Jack, long time no see," Shepard called to distract the two of them.

The shorter but more powerful biotic's attention went towards him, and she lifted her head towards him to acknowledge him. "Shepard. Good timing. Lawson here was just about to fill me in on another Cerberus secret. Maybe you've heard this one already, though. What the hell happened to that one colony we saved half of? Horizon?"

"Ah." Shepard's lips pressed themselves firmly against one another. "Maybe I should know the context of your conversation before I just jump in here."

"Go ahead, Shepard. I was just about to tell her about Sanctuary, anyhow," Miranda shrugged. She leaned closer to him and whispered something into his ear.

His eyes widened when he heard her reveal Jack's revelation. "Oh, shit. This is really weird, now." He placed a hand over his forehead.

"Will somebody give me a straight fucking answer here?" Jack's voice began to double in volume.

"The Illusive Man was working with my father to create a signal that would help him be able to take control over the Reapers. And the only way that they could do it as quickly as they did was to trick refugees with food and shelter to turn them into…husks," Miranda finally told her. "They also went to some other human colonies to collect more subjects. Among those may have been, well…-"

"Yeah, I get it," Jack snapped back. "I'm not stupid." A cobalt field of energy fluttered around her body quickly. "Why couldn't you just tell it to me straight, you cold bitch?"

"Jack….-" Shepard tried to placate her and stepped in between the two of them. "It's not Miranda's fault."

"Did I say that, you prick?" She poked her finger into his chest, and the blue biotic field disappeared as fast as it had come. "Look, just…" Her upper teeth cut into her lower lip. "Just get her away from me. I've had enough of this."

"I'm sorry, Jack." Miranda's eyes met hers, and Shepard gave her an incredulous look when he turned his head back around. "Let's go, Shepard. There's nothing more to say here."

"No, there isn't. I'm sorry, too, Jack. For what it's worth, I know what it means to just find a relative and lose that person all in one day," Shepard said as he squeezed her arm. Jack jerked it away from him and stormed away without another word. "Damn, that was relatively…civil for her. I can't believe how much she's calmed down."

"You don't say," Miranda stated with a snort through her nose. "Should we head back now, Shepard?"

"Yeah. I've gotten everything we need. Hey, look, I'm sorry about Wrex back there…you know…-" He offered her his hand, she accepted it, and intertwined her fingers with his. "I should have stopped him sooner, but he is a krogan, still, friend or not…I wasn't sure what to-"

"So you and Liara were engaged in multiple couplings that evening?"

_Crap. How can I answer that question without ramming my foot into my mouth again? _he thought.

"Never mind. It's in the past, and you're mine now," Miranda quickly brushed it off and gave him a quick peck on the cheek as he entered the code to access the Normandy's docking tube. "But understand that this new intel gives me much higher expectations, Commander Shepard. You'd better deliver on my demand."

"Haven't I done enough, woman? Twice today…you're already hungry for some more?" The Normandy's airlock opened with a hiss.

She gave him an aggressive kiss while they were scanned and cleaned by the nearly invisible decontamination showers. When the other side opened, she let go of him and sauntered towards the aft part of the CIC.

"Where are you off to now?" he wondered.

She shot him a smoldering leer. "I'll see you later, Shepard."

"But…but…-"

"Don't you have a ship to run now?" With that, Miranda spun upon her heel and headed towards the elevator. "I'll join you for dinner later."

"Hey, Commander, you ready to head out now?" Joker's voice interrupted their conversation as he spun his chair around. "You and Miranda were the last ones back, just one minute ahead of your own all aboard time. Nice job." He gave his superior a thumbs up.

"EDI?" Shepard cleared away his idle thoughts about Miranda and turned his body towards the bridge. "Has the crew been accounted for?"

"Affirmative, Shepard. XO Williams reports that all are present. Chief Engineer Adams is on standby downstairs with the rest of the engine crew ready for a full ahead," the AI responded to him.

"Joker, set a course towards the Annos Basin system. I want to make a refueling stop before we head to the Pax system." Shepard's hands went behind his back, and he spread his legs apart to evenly balance himself on his feet.

"Aye aye, sir. Any particular way you'd like me to exit the Citadel?" the jockey pilot gave him a crooked grin.

"Safely, Joker. Nothing fancy or showy, either. Save the tricks for when we head to the Anadius system."

"Understood." Joker rotated his chair back around and stared at his holographic screens. "System check. Aft port thrusters, fire. Good. Aft starboard thrusters, fire. Good. Reverse." He touched the brim of his trademark hat three times for good luck and cleared his throat. "Course will be set in approximately thirty seconds, Commander."

"Roger that, Mr. Moreau. Nice and easy towards the relay now."

"Crap. Looks like we just hit rush hour traffic."

"Then I guess we'll just have to wait our turn in line, then." Shepard kept his eyes peeled on the dozens of ships that were ahead of them.

"Is there a reason why you're still up here, sir?" Joker inquired. "You usually uh…just kind of let me do my own thing here…with EDI, I mean."

"Can't a captain watch his own ship pull away from port, Flight Lt. Moreau?"

"No disrespect was intended, sir. I was just curious."

"Mind your distance, Jeff," EDI cautioned him. "You're almost tailgating that Turian cruiser in front of us."

"Thanks, EDI. Can you take over for a minute?" His head left the controls briefly, and Shepard took a few steps towards his pilot.

"Negative, EDI. I want Joker on this," Shepard ordered her.

"As you wish, Shepard," the AI replied.

"Shepard, EDI's handled this maneuver dozens of times. I don't understand why-"

"You've been spending quite a bit of time away from the bridge recently while we were pulling out of port. I just wanted to see if you could still manually get us out of a very congested docking bay," Shepard gave him a large smirk. "Nice job as usual. Any particular reason why you wanted EDI to ahem assume control?"

"Oh, that's just disgusting, Commander," Joker complained. "I wanted to go grab a sandwich out of the mess, but now I think I don't want to eat for another hour."

"You're welcome," he chuckled and left the cockpit.

THE END

**A/N**-Okay, so this is the end of this set of vignettes. I promise everyone that I will write some more; I've just been so consumed by putting the finishing touches on my own original novel that's going to be published sometime this year that I need a couple of days for a break. So please do keep those very encouraging reviews coming…they are very appreciated. I'll update my profile to let everyone know the title and status of production. It will be available on e-book on Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon. Also, it will be printed but made on demand (one has to order it online from Trafford Publishing). But first things first, you know.


End file.
